Have you listened to Gene Clark's first solo album? If you haven't you should. I think you'll enjoy it if you like the early Byrds' albums. The solo debut of the original main songwriter of the Byrds is called Gene Clark With The Gosdin Brothers, released in early 1967. All songs written and sung by Gene Clark, with a very byrdish sound: jangly guitars, deep harmony vocals and even byrds Chris Hillman and Mike Clarke on bass and drums, respectively. Glorious mid-60's rock.

Got Lorde's 'Pure Heroine' album because I really enjoy her two singles, but it's very underwhelming. I'm starting to wonder more and more if current pop stars actually give a sh*t about the albums they release as a whole, or do they concentrate just on the singles? (not that there's anything wrong with singles as your main artistic priority, it's just that I feel a bit foolish buying the album and finding that nothing even comes even close to the singles, quality-wise.)

There's a few artists nowadays where I'll buy a whole album as these acts do seem to want to craft coherent quality material. But I think Ovi's observation is right. Generally artists today know that most of the sales will be downloads of two or three songs. So all the effort goes into having a few killer tracks. The remaining album material is filler for concerts.

Not helped by the fad of giving each song marks out of 5 in an album review.Think how much great Beatles stuff would not have been 'recommended to download'.I suspect most of the White Album for starters.

Not helped by the fad of giving each song marks out of 5 in an album review.Think how much great Beatles stuff would not have been 'recommended to download'.I suspect most of the White Album for starters.

Exactly. I admit to doing using that to buy a couple of songs. If there's a group of artists I want to check out at once. Then maybe move into the album.

I finally got a couple of CDs I've been wanting; Band on the Run and Neil Young's Live at Massey Hall. I had the Band on the Run LP when it first came out and I wondered if I'd still love it as much now as I did then. I do.

Having got rid of hundreds of CDs in recent weeks, I've started to notice gaps in the old collection that need to be addressed and, inspired by a recent half-hour piece on the album by Johnnie Walker, I got 'Lady Soul' (1968) by Aretha Franklin last night.Two things:1. It cost me £2.99 in HMV, considerably less than it would have done 25 years ago! and,2. It clocks in at under 30 minutes which, for me, adds to the experience rather than working against it.

Having got rid of hundreds of CDs in recent weeks, I've started to notice gaps in the old collection that need to be addressed and, inspired by a recent half-hour piece on the album by Johnnie Walker, I got 'Lady Soul' (1968) by Aretha Franklin last night.Two things:1. It cost me £2.99 in HMV, considerably less than it would have done 25 years ago! and,2. It clocks in at under 30 minutes which, for me, adds to the experience rather than working against it.

How is the album in comparison with its predecessor, 'Never Loved A Man' ?

Maybe there's not much profit to make in selling cd's, online or offline. So why bother to try to make a masterpiece?

Just for an artistic reason, to put outside what you have inside. The art itself should be the main objective. But if the only objective is to make money, then there's no reason to bother, as well as there's no artist.

Just for an artistic reason, to put outside what you have inside. The art itself should be the main objective. But if the only objective is to make money, then there's no reason to bother, as well as there's no artist.

Well put.

Logged

They were the most brilliant, powerful, lovable, popular group on the planet. - Q, 1995.

'Never Loved A Man' was the one Aretha album I actually had, but I doubt if I've played it for at least 10 years. That said, clocking in at 32 minutes and including the title track, 'Respect' and 'Do Right Woman, Do Right Man', it doesn't exactly sound a dud!I'll dust it down and also purchase 'Aretha Arrives' (67), 'Aretha Now' (68) and 'Soul '69' (erm.....69) and that should see me through on the Aretha front.

Not exactly a CD, and I'm not sure if you can't get this around the world, but I've been listening to Gilles Peterson's 4-part Guide to Brazilian Music on BBC Radio 2.

Now I know absolutely zilch about Brazilian music and I'm trying to get a handle on the 60s in particular. Some of the stuff he's played (a '68 LP by Pedro Santos, Tamba Trio, Quarteta em cy.....?!?!?) has been brilliant.